Vandals desecrate 95 graves of German soldiers in a cemetery in France

95 German soldiers’ graves vandalized in France

COLMAR, France — Vandals have smashed crosses and monuments on the graves of 95 German soldiers in a joint French-German military cemetery in eastern France, officials said Friday.

The cemetery in Guebwiller holds the remains of 5,843 German and French soldiers who fought against each other in World Wars I and II, and is seen as a symbol of European reconciliation.

Crosses were torn off some graves and white stone monuments were broken to pieces, said Agnes Reinstettel, spokeswoman for the regional administration of the Haut-Rhin province. An insult was scrawled across one, she said.

None of the French graves was vandalized, she said.

The national police force is conducting an investigation.

France’s veterans affairs minister, Hubert Falco, lamented the “scandalous” vandalism at the cemetery where “former enemies rest in the same earth,” and expressed his solidarity with his German counterpart.

“Death takes away all our differences, and deserves respect from all those living. Respect due to the dead is the oldest rule of humanity,” Falco said in a statement.

Defense Minister Herve Morin was heading to the cemetery, where white stone crosses mark the graves of French soldiers alongside gray granite crosses bearing German names.

A few kilometers (miles) away from the cemetery, barracks are to house the first postwar deployment of German soldiers in France, a powerful sign that the countries have overcome historic enmity.